There are many coin dispensing devices available that dispense loose coins from a bulk hopper into a tray so that the coins become available to the patron. These coin dispensing devices are used in many different apparatuses such as vending machines, currency changing machines and gaming devices such as slot machines. The coin dispensing device of the present invention can be utilized to feed loose coins from a hopper to a coin tray in any type of apparatus that handles loose coins. The coin dispensing device is also useful for dispensing any objects shaped like coins, for example tokens or disks that may or may not have monetary value.
Currency changing machines have become an indispensable part of the equipment utilized in the gaming, amusement and vending businesses. A patron desiring to obtain loose coins to use in a vending, amusement or gaming machine merely inserts currency into the currency changer and receives the appropriate coinage.
A typical currency changing machine has a currency acceptor/validator that verifies that the currency being inserted is legitimate. There is also a coin storage device, such as a hopper, that holds the supply of loose coins that will be dispensed to the patron. The coin storage device has a mechanical dispensing apparatus that dispensings the coins from the storage area to a coin tray that is accessible by the patron. The currency changer is provided with electronics that controls the operation of the dispensing of the coins to ensure that the appropriate number of coins are supplied to the patron.
Representative of a coin dispensing device that is used in gaming equipment, such as a slot machine, is the device shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,942,544, to Breitenstein. A bowlshaped hopper is provided on the interior of the gaming machine. Coins inserted by the patron fall into the hopper and become the coin supply to be dispensed in the event that the patron achieves a winning combination on the slot machine. On the back wall of the hopper, there is provided a pin wheel device that rotates through the coin supply and picks up individual coins around the periphery of the pin wheel. As the pinwheel rotates, the coins on the top of the pinwheel are fed along a knife track to a location where each coin exits the interior of the gaming machine and is dispensed into a coin tray for access by the patron. The Breitenstein hopper is susceptible to jamming and is limited in the number of coins it can hold.
There are also devices that receive coins from the bottom of a hopper and typically these designs are used in currency changing machines. These devices utilize rotating disks to receive the coins from the hopper and dispense the coins to the patron. Representative of this type of design is U.S. Pat. No. 4,398,550 to Shireman.
Shireman discloses a pair of rotating, overlapping disks each with a plurality of coin receiving apertures. The disks rotate in opposite angular directions and coins are transferred from one disk to the other disk when the apertures line up. The axes of the disks are offset in that only one aperture in the upper disk lines up with one aperture in the lower disk so that only one coin dispensed at a time. A coin dispensing device that utilizes the Shireman apparatus must be large enough to accommodate the diameters of each of the two overlapping disks.
Representative of another coin dispensing apparatus is the device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,881,919 to Stanley P. Dabrowski, the inventor of the present invention. This apparatus uses a single rotating disk at the bottom of the hopper. The rotating disk is provided with a plurality of peripheral slot-like passages that receive coins from the hopper and then spin the coins off the disk at a particular angular position so that the coins can be dispensed into a coin tray.
It is important that the coin dispensing device be virtually trouble-free. The coin dispensing device becomes inoperable in the event of coin jams. The coin hopper storage area must be as large as possible so that an adequate supply of loose coins is available to the gaming patron. If the coin dispensing device jams or if the coin dispensing device runs out of loose coins, the gaming or amusement patron will become discouraged and will quit playing the gaming or amusement machine.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a coin dispensing device that is virtually trouble-free and not susceptible to coin jamming because the weight of the coins in the coin hopper storage area is not imposed upon the mechanism that feeds the coins into the coin tray. It is a further object of the present invention that the coin dispensing device is compact and generally no larger than the diameter of the rotating agitator disk so that the coin dispensing device can be used in coin dispensing equipment that is small enough to fit in tight spaces.
It is a feature of the present invention to provide a coin dispensing device that has first rotating agitator disk that withdraws coins from the bottom of the coin hopper, a central aperture that feeds the coins to a dispensing slot in a fixed disk and a second rotating dispensing disk that pushes the coins along a dispensing slot in the fixed disk and into an adjacent coin tray where the coins are accessible by the patron.
It is a further feature of the present invention that the second rotating dispensing disk be provided with one or more pusher balls that are spring biased. As the second rotating disk rotates, each pusher ball in turn comes into contact with the edge of a coin lined up in the dispensing slot. The pusher ball will provide a positive drive to the edge of a coin only up to a certain force which is determined by the strength of the bias spring and the torque of the motor driving the second rotating disk. If the force necessary to push the coin exceeds a certain level (which would occur in the event of a coin jam), the pusher ball will push down on the bias spring and slid underneath the edge of the coin. This will normally occur when a coin in the central feed aperture is oriented at an angle instead of being horizontal in the central feed aperture. In order to correct this situation, the direction of rotation of the first and second rotating disks can be reversed to alleviate any interruption of coin dispensing that may be caused by coins bridging or jamming in the device.
It is an advantage of the present invention that the coin dispensing device takes up very little space and can be used in compactly designed coin changing equipment and that the coin dispensing is virtually jam free and very easy to maintain.